A Texas Sky (Yellow Rose Trilogy) (12 page)

"You don't sound as though you were asleep."

"I don't sleep very soundly when I'm on the trail."

Again silence covered them, and again Darvi was the

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one to break it

"Dakota?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to intrude, but will you tell me how it happened

for you?"

"My salvation?"

"Yes. I mean, if you want to."

"If s not a very long story. You knew I'd been shot and I

told you it was bal, but I don't know if I told you that

while I was in that gunfight, I thought I might die. When I

realized I hadn't, I knew it was time to face what my

brothers had been telling me."

A Texas Sty 81

"How many brothers do you have?"

"Two."

"And they both believe?"

"Yes. I thought that preachers used hell as a scare tactic

to get people to church, but when I was faced with dying,

I realized I wasn't ready. If hell was a real place, I was in

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trouble. If Slater and Cash had been telling me the truth, I

knew I was lost

"After I got hurt, I stayed with another Ranger. My

brothers came to see me there, and I asked them to help me

understand salvation. Thaf s about the size of it"

"Had you been searching for a long time?"

"Running was more like it I just didn't want to accept

the fact that I sin. I'm around a lot of very desperate people,

and somehow I thought I was better. I didn't like being

lumped into the sinner category."

"Thank you for telling me," Darvi said softly. Dakota

thought he heard tears in her voice.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes," she said, but it was on a sniff.

"How did it happen for you?"

"I won't be able to tell you without crying. If s all I've

done lately."

"Well, don't let tears stop you."

"If s a long story," she replied, tears even thicker in her

voice.

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"I'm not going anywhere."

Dakota heard her blow her nose and cough a UtUe. He

wanted to tell her they didn't have to talk, but thinking she

might fall back to sleep, he kept silent A few minutes

passed and she began.

"I don't know if you know this, Dakota, but I'm from St.

Louis. And not just any part of St. Louis. I grew up in one

of the nicer homes in one of the better sections of town. My

family has always lived in style. In fact, I can't remember

not having just about anything I wanted. We were very

self-sufficient, my whole family, and because of that, I just

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never gave God a thought We didn't pray at meals or go

to church; we just took care of ourselves.

"But there was a woman in town, a pastor's wife, and

she and my mother got to know each other through the St.

Louis Ladies' Guild. I was just a little girl when I heard my

mother tell Mrs. Beacher--that was her name--that she

didn't believe anyone lived for eternity, not in heaven or

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hell. My mother believes that our life on earth is the end.

You live and then you die. When Mrs. Beacher pressed her,

my mother said that we live on through our descendants,

and almost to prove that point, my mother has pictures of

our ancestors all over the house. The hallways are lined

with their paintings and photographs. So is the library and

the large parlor."

Darvi fell silent for a moment.

"I grew up so smug and sure, Dakota. I didn't have a

care in the world--at least not until I visited Austin in the

summers and played with Merry Scott, who was then

Merry Voight. She had the audacity to tell me she knew

there was a heaven, and to top it off, she said she was going

there."

Dakota smiled as he listened.

"I could have strangled her. I thought it was the most

foolish thing, but she wasn't teasing me or acting proud.

She had a deep joy about this fact, a joy I had never experienced

over anything. Most of the summer I would play

my heart out with her, not letting myself think too deeply,

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but when I went home I was miserable. Not only did I want

to be back running free in a way I never could at home, but

then I had time to think about what she said, and every

summer I knew tremendous fear that she might be right"

She sighed a little and continued quietly.

"This went on for more years than I care to think about

I eventually stopped visiting in the summer. My interests

changed, and boys were noticing me. I even became

engaged to be married, and then the unthinkable happened.

It was just this spring. The house was abuzz with

ATexasSky 83

plans for a June wedding. My mother was showing the

caterer through the house, and he asked about the largest

portrait in the hall. Later I tried to tell myself that she was

busy and distracted, but I couldn't quite convince my

heart. My mother, who was going to live on through her

children and grandchildren, couldn't remember Great

Uncle Jenkins' name. She looked very forlorn for a moment

but then passed it off with a laugh.

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"Later, when I was alone, I walked through and looked

at all the portraits in the house. I couldn't tell you the

names of half of them. I asked myself how, if I didn't know

these people and my mother was already forgetting their

names, could they still be living?

"The fact that they were all very dead and always

would be was like a blow to me. I walked around in a

painful cloud the rest of the day, and the next morning I

canceled a date with my fiancee and went to see Mrs.

Beacher." Darvi sighed again, this time sounding very

tired. "I understood now all the things that Merry had said

to me during those hot summers in Austin, and as soon as

Mrs. Beacher explained, I knew in an instant that my sin

had put Christ on the cross and that I was lost without

Him. I'd never known such peace, but it only lasted until I

arrived home. I can't begin to tell you the mess I made of

things.

"The weeks that followed were like something out of a

nightmare. My parents were deeply hurt over what I was

telling them. Then Mrs. Beacher, who was meeting with me

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each week for Bible study, asked me if my intended was a

believer. I had to tell her no."

Tears were coming now, and Darvi didn't try to stop

them.

"I can't tell you what it did to all of us to have me break

off my engagement with Brandon. He was so hurt, and I

was feeling lost and confused. My mother said it was just

a stage and that I would get over it. She went right on with

the wedding plans until I left for a few days to get her

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attention. I didn't know what else to do. And all the time

Brandon was coming around, telling me he'd love me

anyway, but I knew it wasn't right. I finally wrote Uncle

Marty and asked if I could come. He wired me right away

and said yes. I was so exhausted by the time I arrived that

I ended up ill. I know my mother must have written to him,

but he never said a word to me.

"In all the hoopla, I'd completely forgotten about Merry.

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After spending days in bed, I woke up one morning and

knew I had to see her. But we had never kept in touch by mail, and I didn't know she'd moved. Thaf s why I followed you down the street, and that's why you're stuck

with me right now."

"I don't feel I'm stuck with you, Darvi, and I don't want

to hear you say that again."

"All right." She sounded very contrite, and Dakota

wished he could see her. He had written his parents about

his conversion and received a rather surprised letter from

his mother, but it was nothing like what Darvi had experienced.

In fact, although admitting that she didn't understand,

his mother told him that she and his father would

support him in whatever he wanted to do. It had always

been that way with his parents, and Dakota was just now

seeing how good he'd had it. His parents' lack of faith in

Christ still concerned him, but there was no anxiety as he

prayed for them every day and tried to prepare his heart

for the next time he saw them.

A sniff broke into Dakota's thoughts.

"Thank you for telling me, Darvi. I'll pray for you."

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"Thank you. Please pray that I'll figure a way to get out

of this mess I've landed myself in."

"I can't pray that, Darvi, because I don't see it that way."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you can't marry a man who doesn't share your

faith and commitment to Christ. I'm sorry that your family

has taken it so hard, but they're going to have to get used

to your decision."

ATexasSty * 85

Darvi was so shocked she was speechless. This worried

Dakota.

"Am I out of line, Darvi?"

"No, I'm just surprised that I haven't seen that before.

I've got to let my mother work this out. I can't worry about

her response to Christ or my decision."

"I agree with you. My parents do not share my faith in

Christ, and I'm thankful they don't give me a hard time.

Nevertheless, I can be tempted to worry about their eternity

and choices when God says worry is a sin."

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Again Darvi sighed, but not because she was overwhelmed.

She knew worry was a sin, but she hadn't seen

that this was what she was doing.

"Thank you, Dakota," Darvi said for the last time.

"You've helped me a lot."

"You're welcome," Dakota responded, feeling very

inadequate. There was so much he didn't know, and for a

moment he had doubted his own words to her. He finally

fell back to sleep--they both did--each one praying for

greater understanding and wisdom in this new life, a life

they wouldn't trade for anything, but one so foreign they

might have been living in another world.

c6

even.

Aurora, Texas

jared silk's eyes narrowed in anger as he read the

newspaper column. After all this time he should have been

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used to it, but he knew if Annabelle Hewett had been in the

room just then, he would have been tempted to strike her.

He read it yet again:

What does Aurora's newest

bank have going this time?

How about loan rates that are

not only too good to be true,

they're impossible to believe!

One can't help but wonder

how owner Jared Silk can

afford clothing that clearly

didn't come from a catalog.

We'll all be waiting with great

anticipation at the town's fall

festival. Will Silk's face be as

red as his new cravat?